Revisiting A Classic

We all know what we find when we browse through the "Classics" section of our local video store: A lot of old movies. If a film is in black & white, or if it predates 1960, it will almost certainly be filed there. But "old" and "Classic" are not necessarily synonymous. Cinema is still a relatively new artform, and filmmakers in the 1930's were barely in the process of developing film technique. The ability to have actors speak on film was a new advance. And writers had to learn, largely by trial and error, how to write dialogue that sounded convincing when spoken aloud.

Consequently, a lot of old movies have aged badly. The dialogue often sounds stilted, and the performances are often so over-the-top as to be too broad for "General Hospital." Moreover, what was relevant to viewers in the 1930's is not necessarily relevant today. The result is that a lot of films from that period simply do not hold up to modern scrutiny.

But some of them do. Some movies touch on universal themes, as relevant 100 years from now as they were upon their initial release, almost 60 years ago. Watching them today, we still relate to their characters, and we still become lost in the stories they tell. This is what distinguishes a "Classic" from just another old movie.

One genuine classic is "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Part political satire, part modern fairy tale, Frank Capra initially conceived the movie as a follow-up to his earlier film, "Mr. Deeds Comes to Town" (hence the oft-noted similarities between the two films). When the studio holding Gary Cooper's contract refused to loan him out to reprise his role as Deeds, Capra instead cast rising star James Stewart in what became the title role of Jefferson Smith. This choice proved to be fortuitous. It is doubtful that many actors could have played Smith's wide-eyed naivete in the film's first half without making Smith into so broad a buffoon as to make his heroic stand at the end ridiculous. Stewart, however, maintains the character's dignity even when he is making a fool of himself. The role demonstrated both his comic and dramatic range to good effect, and is commonly credited as the role that cemented his stardom.

As the film opens, the Senator to an unnamed state has died, and the state's governor (Guy Kibbee) has just been informed. The governor is distraught at the news; after all, the death comes at the worst possible time, just as the Senate is preparing to vote on legislation that will line the pockets of local political boss/newspaper magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold). Taylor, who owns the governor outright, insists on the appointment of one of his stooges to replace the dead man. When the governor is unable to get Taylor's choice ratified, he chooses another man--Jefferson Smith (Stewart), a Scout leader who has become a local hero after putting out a forest fire.

Smith seems the perfect rube, a decent and patriotic man with a vast knowledge of American history, but not even the most basic understanding of the workings of American politics. Senator Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior Senator who is a Presidential hopeful--and also owned by Taylor--has what seems an easy task: distract Smith from the crucial legislation until after the Senate has pushed it through.

The wide-eyed Smith is easily distractable. He is ambushed by the press corps almost immediately upon his arrival, and made to look like a fool in every newspaper before he has even been sworn in. He develops a crush on Paine's daughter (Astrid Allwyn), who is then used to keep him away from the Senate the day the bill is introduced. And, having no idea what a monumental task he is setting himself, he readily agrees when Senator Paine advises him to write a bill of his own, to create a National Boys' Ranch.

This last proves to be Paine's undoing, however, as the site Smith wants to allocate for his Ranch is the same site needed for Taylor's graft. When his acid-tongued, Washington-weary assistant (wonderfully played by Jean Arthur) finally clues Smith in to exactly what's going on, Paine is given no choice: he must destroy the younger Senator, or be destroyed. Forging evidence of corruption by Smith, Paine lobbies to have him removed from the Senate. The Taylor political machine goes into action, its vise-like grip on the press used to turn public opinion against Smith. And finally the young man, who has only been in Washington about a week, is left with one desperate gambit to battle a system he still doesn't understand. A loophole that allows a Senator, once he has been recognized, to hold the floor for as long as he remains both standing and speaking. A filibuster.

The film did not please everyone with its frank look at political corruption. "You don't belong (in Washington)," Smith's assistant tells him, "You're halfway decent." Not everyone appreciated sentiments such as these, and the movie was branded "Unamerican" on its initial release. An effort was even made to buy and burn the negative (not dissimilar to the efforts by William Randolph Hearts to suppress "Citizen Kane" two years later). But the film was a hit at the box office, as well as with most critics, and it earned Stewart his first Academy Award nomination.

The film was a triumph for Stewart, but even he was upstaged by Claude Rains' Oscar-nominated work. Rains' Senator Paine is no cardboard villain or weak-willed lackey (those roles are filled by Taylor and The Governor, respectively, in this film). Paine, nicknamed "The Silver Knight" by the press for his public persona as a strong leader, is shown to be a man who clearly understands what is right and what is wrong, and who regrets every wrong action he commits. He was once a lot like Smith. But years in Washington taught him the need to compromise, a point-of-view he sums up, quite convincingly, in a clear-eyed speech to Smith. "I can accomplish a thousand good things a year," he tells the younger man, "but I have to make compromises." To push through legislation that might be important to himself or his state, he has to be willing to give political bosses like Taylor their kickbacks. And when Smith stands in the way, Paine is forced into the position of disgracing him, even though he hates himself for doing it. The characterization is unusually multilayered for a film villain even today, let alone in 1939, and Rains hits every note spot-on.

No film is perfect, however, and even the greatest classics inevitably show their age. "Smith" shows its age in exactly three sequences. The first, unfortunately, is the entire opening sequence. This segment of the film, in which the governor reaches his decision to appoint Smith, is rushed and badly-paced, and Capra's seeming desperation to milk the material for laughs right off the top only makes it worse. A scene where the governor is browbeaten by his own children at the dinner table stands out as particularly badly-written, embarrassingly so, in an otherwise well-written picture. It is a "forced-cute" touch that is not cute, is not funny, and may have modern viewers reaching for the "off" button before they have given the film a fair chance. On the plus side, it only takes fifteen minutes to get Smith to Washington, and once he is there the movie immediately hits its stride. The downside is, that first fifteen minutes feels a whole lot longer.

The second "bad" scene is a trivial annoyance, an overlong would-be comic scene where Smith's assistant gets drunk with a reporter (Thomas Mitchell, who manages to be funny even when his material is not). Less easy to forgive is the film's ending, which hinges on a character doing a rather abrupt and implausible about-face in literally the film's closing minutes. Coming as it does, at the tail end of the justly-famous filibuster sequence, it seems not only anticlimactic but outright inept. Of course Capra wanted a happy ending, and he was doubtless aware that there was no plausible way for this situation to end happily. But his response--to abandon even the appearance of believability--strikes me as more cynical than anything else in the film. It left enough of a sour taste in my mouth to lower my rating to four stars, when I would otherwise award it five.

Excepting these flaws, however, the film works as well today as it did in 1939. In some ways, it may even play better now, as modern viewers are much more accustomed to the idea of corruption in Washington. And in a modern film environment where noisy explosions and special effects far outnumber characters worth caring about, watching a film with an actual script performed by consummate actors is a true pleasure.


Rating: **** out of *****

Directed by: Frank Capra. Starring: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Harry Carey, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee, Beulah Bondi, H. B. Warner, Eugene Pallette, Astrid Allwyn, Porter Hall.

Running Time: 129 minutes.

Unrated, equivalent to a PG for adult themes and a short, but intense, scene of implied violence.


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